Thank you for your interest in the 2025 Countdown Improv Festival, produced by Countdown Arts, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. This year’s festival will run from August 6-10 in Tampa, Florida.
We will be accepting submissions from January 29 through March 7, and will strive to inform all teams of our decisions by mid- to late March. Submission prices are as follows: $30 from January 29-31, $35 from February 1-28, and $40 from March 1-7.
All submission fees are used to offset festival production costs. (Projected submission revenue covers approximately 3.5 percent of this year’s total festival budget, in case you were wondering.) The staggered pricing structure is meant to dissuade performers from waiting until the very last minute to submit their shows. It’s a lot easier on the production team when submissions come in steadily throughout the submission period. Finally, from a production perspective, the existence of a submission fee reduces the number of half-baked submissions we receive from groups that haven’t actually read these guidelines and are not actually serious about attending the festival. We’re not apologizing for charging a fee, we’re just explaining it.
That said! If for whatever reason you cannot or would rather not pay the submission fee, please email us at countdownimprovfestival at gmail dot com, using the subject line “Fee Waiver,” and we will give you a fee waiver, no questions asked and no explanation needed. Just tell us the name of your troupe and we’ll get it done.
Troupe size
The Countdown Improv Festival accepts groups in configurations of one, two, and three performers only. If your group contains more people than that, please do not apply, unless it’s a really, really good bit. All submissions (including videos) should reflect the group’s lineup as it would appear at the festival if accepted. Please note: Musical directors do not count toward the three-person limit.
Projected yield
Our festival capacity maxes out right around 100 teams, and that’s pushing it; the optimal upper limit for teams is closer to 85. In 2025 we expect to have between 160 and 180 submissions, which means that, if we program the festival to capacity, about half of the teams that apply will not be accepted to the festival. (Of course, our projections might stink, in which case these ratios would be way off.) Before the submission process officially began, we offered guaranteed acceptance to all of those acts which, as of 2025, would have performed at the festival for five years or more.
Evaluation process
All submissions will be judged twice: once by members of a committee comprised of producers and longtime Countdown performers, and once by festival founders Justin Peters and Kelly Buttermore. All submissions are judged according to a standardized rubric that assigns numerical scores to various criteria, including the quality, proficiency, and originality of a given submission; the scoring rubric promotes objectivity, and ensures that all applicants are judged according to the same standards.
Whereas in years past we did not begin reviewing submissions until after the submission period had concluded, in 2025 we will watch and score submissions as they are received. That said, we will not begin to make any acceptance decisions until after the end of the submission period, which in turn ensures that early submissions are not unfairly privileged over later ones.
Headliners
We don’t have them! Every performer at the 2025 festival has filled out an application and paid a fee, same as you. We don’t invite people to perform, and we don’t give special treatment to “name” performers. At the Countdown Improv Festival, we seek to celebrate and welcome every single act on the bill.
Raising the bar
As the festival gets more and more popular, we’ve found ourselves with the good problem of having more high-quality acts that want to attend than we can accommodate every year. While we always do our very best to make room for every act that meets our standards, increased submission numbers means a larger pool of acts to choose from, which in turn serves to raise the bar for acceptance. As such, our projected submission numbers indicate that it may well be harder than ever to get into the festival this year. (Again, our projections could also stink, in which case it might be very easy to get into the festival this year!)
Another point: While past attendance at the festival will always be weighted in the evaluation process, in 2025 this factor will not bear disproportionate weight. In plain English: If we get the number of submissions we’re expecting, we might even have to turn down some teams that’ve performed with us before. Not looking forward to this, but it might happen, so please bear it in mind!
Programming strategy
This year’s festival will run from Wednesday, August 6 through Sunday, August 10, and on at least two of those nights we’ll be running concurrent shows on three separate stages. While we understand that, from a perfomer’s perspective, Friday and Saturday are the “money nights,” please know that, when we sit down to program the festival, we treat all nights as equally valuable. This festival is not the sort of festival where all the “good” performers go on the weekend and all the subpar performers are scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday.
To that end, in the part of the application when we ask you to list the nights on which you’re available to perform, please only exclude those nights on which you have actual conflicts. When we sit down to program the festival, performers who say they can only perform on one specific night often find themselves at a serious disadvantage to those who are more broadly available.
Sorry, no refunds
Festival application fees are non-refundable. Yes, even if you’re not accepted. We can’t believe that we have to actually explain this, but turns out we do!
“Every year we go to the Countdown Improv Festival we only have one regret. That regret is that it’s only once a year. Justin and Kelly put on the best festival in the world. Nobody takes care of the performers better.” –Patrick Newson, Chicago
Experiments welcome
The Countdown Improv Festival welcomes and celebrates experimental work. If you’re wondering whether or not your show is too weird for us, don’t worry, it probably isn’t! If you’d like to consult with us about your show concept in advance of submitting to the festival, please feel free to reach out to us at countdownimprovfestival at gmail dot com. We encourage you to consult with us before submitting your show.
We’ll have three stages again this year, and we’ll also have multiple venues
The 2025 festival will take place across three separate stages within the HCC Ybor Performing Arts Building, as well as at The Commodore, the improv theater we co-own that’s a 15-minute walk from HCC Ybor. This will be our first year producing a multiple-venue festival, and we’re excited for the challenge. At HCC, we’ve reserved the HCC Mainstage Theatre, a 250-seat auditorium; the HCC Studio Theatre, an intimate 50-seat black-box venue; and the HCC Rehearsal Hall, which seats 30 people. The Commodore is a single-stage venue that can accommodate up to 99 people. As in 2024, we will likely also have a “secret” stage, probably in a bathroom or something. Oops, the secret’s out.
Set length
Almost all sets will run between 18-22 minutes. On occasion we will program a show that runs slightly shorter or longer than that, but generally only if the format of the show absolutely requires a non-standard length. If your show is one of these types of shows, please let us know in the application form.
Also, we do not videotape performers’ shows at the Countdown Improv Festival. We just don’t do it. Feel free to tape your own set, though!
Performance video
It is important to include a representative performance video with your submission. A video, more than anything else, gives the selection committee the best sense for not only the caliber and quality of your show, but how to program your troupe/solo act within a lineup if you are accepted. Please know that your submission will be at a disadvantage if it does not include a video.
A COUPLE OF NOTES ON VIDEOS:
- If your team performed at the festival in 2024, you do not need to send us a video. The only circumstances in which we’d need to see a video would be if the composition of your troupe has changed significantly, or if your show has changed significantly since you last performed it with us.
- If you don’t have a great video, never fear: We’re willing to work with you. Just note your situation on your application, and give us as detailed a description as possible of the sort of show you hope to perform at the festival. If you have tape of any sort, send it our way. We’ll do our best to give your troupe all due consideration.
Tips on preparing your video
- Above all else, if you’re choosing from several videos, pick the one that you like the most. Give us a video that you think best represents your troupe and the sort of show you would be excited to perform at the festival.
- Test your video quality, camera angles, and sound quality beforehand. If any of those three factors strike you as unsatisfactory, please consider submitting a different tape. We’ve gotten more than a few videos with really poor production values, and it is hard to accurately evaluate a tape where you cannot hear or see the performers.
- Make sure your entire cast is in the video you’re submitting. We want to see your show as it would appear on the HCC stage.
- We’re looking for full-length performance videos; no clips, highlight reels, or trailers, please. Film your entire show, from intro to blackout.
Thank you for submitting your troupe to this year’s festival! If you have any questions that weren’t covered here, please email us at countdownimprovfestival at gmail dot com.